A Few Small Candles: War Resisters of World War II Tell Their StoriesLarry Gara, Lenna Mae Gara Kent State University Press, 1999 - 207 pages Little is known about those who openly refused to enter military service in World War II because of their convictions against killing. While many of those men accepted alternative civilian service, more than 6,000 were incarcerated with sentences ranging from a few months to five years. Some were tried, convicted, and reimprisoned for essentially the same offense--resisting induction into the armed forces--after their initial release. In A Few Small Candles, ten men tell why they resisted, what happened to them, and how they feel about that experience today. Their stories detail the resisters' struggles against racial segregation in prison, as well as how they instigated work and hunger strikes to demonstrate against other prison injustices. Each of the ten has remained active in various causes relating to peace and social justice. This is a unique collection of memoirs that illuminated the American homefront during World War II and provides an important source for those interested in the American peace movement. |
From inside the book
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... service in World War II because of their convictions against killing . While many of those men accepted alternative civilian service , more than 6,000 were incarcerated , with sentences ranging from a few months to five years . Some ...
... Service , Compulsory nonmilitary - United States . 3. World War , 1939-1945 - Personal narratives , American . 4. Conscientious objectors - United States - Biography . 5. Political prisoners - United States Biography . I. Gara , Larry ...
... service but who were willing to do civilian work of " national importance . " Objectors choosing such service , if they were granted that privilege by their draft boards , were sent to Civilian Public Service ( CPS ) camps . Nominally ...
... service projects during World War II . Little of the writing about World War II has focused on consci- entious objectors and alternative service . Even less known is the rec- ord of the nearly six thousand war resisters who served terms ...
... Service Committee , becoming executive secretary in 1969. He has traveled widely as consultant , lecturer , and writer . With his wife , Harriet Warner , he now lives in North Carolina and Maine . Photo courtesy of the Antiochiana ...
Contents
1 | |
20 | |
My Resistance to World War II | 38 |
My War and My Peace | 53 |
My War on War | 78 |
War Resistance in World War II | 98 |
Reflections of a Religious War Objector Half a Century Later | 130 |
Prison and Butterfly Wings | 152 |
How the War Changed My Life | 174 |
My Story of World War II | 194 |
Selected Additional Readings | 205 |